Monday, Sep. 22, 2008

Virginia

There's medicine, there's alternative medicine, and then there's Edgar Cayce. The supposed psychic made quite a name for himself before he died in 1945, by putting himself into a sleeplike trance and providing answers to an array of baffling questions. Most of his readings, however, had to do with cures for medical conditions. At Cayce's Association for Research and Enlightenment in Virginia Beach, a modern building that sits next to the seer's old beach house, visitors are invited to take a tour or browse through the library. Inside are all kinds of New Age-y books, as well as the transcripts to 14,000 of Cayce's readings. Many are of dubious value — freshly skinned rabbit to cure breast cancer, for example, or the fumes of apple brandy from a charred keg for tuberculosis — but who knows? You might find something for that troublesome wart after all. At the very least, the records should prove fascinating reading.
215 67th St., Virginia Beach; 757-428-3588.